Gonzalez Byass follows En Rama with new range

Gonzalez Byass has announced the launch of a new range of sherries - the Fino Palmas range.

This follows Byass’s launch two years ago of its Tio Pepe En Rama, a young, ultra-fresh fino made from unfiltered and unclarified Tio Pepe.

The experiment was widely considered a success and Byass doubled production of the wine this year.

The Palmas range consists of four sherries of different ages, from casks with abundant growth of flor, the bloom of yeast that covers the surface of fino sherries in cask.

The name refers to the ‘palma’ chalk mark made by a cellar master on a fino cask to indicate those casks – highly prized for their flavour – in which the flor grew particularly well. It is rare to find a good covering of flor in wines more than 10 years old.

Martin Skelton, managing director of Gonzalez Byass UK said, ‘Effectively, each one is a more mature style of Tio Pepe. In each case we have selected only those Fino casks that were found to be most delicate and elegant, normally due to the continued presence of flor.’

The Una Palma and Dos Palmas wines are six and eight years old respectively, the Tres Palmas is ten years old and the Cuatro Palmas is at least 40 years old.

Skelton said the Cuatro Palmas is taken from half a cask of Byass’s ‘Museo Solera’, of which there are only six casks.

‘The Cuatro Palmas wine is very rare, it is technically an Amontillado, but was a great Fino in its day, which retained its flor long after other wines in the bodega, and has thus made, at 40 years of age, a stunning Amontillado wine.’

The Palmas range will be available in the United Kingdom from November 2011. Prices range from £12 for Una Palma to £50 for the Cuatro Palmas. All bottles are 50cl.